Inventor Who Prosecuted Own Patents Loses Appeal

Law360, New York (October 11, 2007, 12:00 AM EDT) -- An appeal was struck down on Wednesday in a case involving an inventor who began prosecuting his own patent applications because he felt he understood the technology better than any lawyer but then made mistakes that led a court to invalidate the patents.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court's decision that 15 patents issued to Ole K. Nilssen are unenforceable due to inequitable conduct at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.